Tag: Najib Tun Razak

(It was a war that Pakatan Harapan was not expected to win but they beat the odds – it was indeed a war that they were not expected to win but they did win in the end)

From the offset, the odds were stacked up against the Pakatan (PAS somehow had it easier considering their loose working relationship with BN). Some of the key opposition politicians were charged with criminal cases or misuse of power – Rafizi with BAFIA and Lim Guan Eng with charged under Section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009, which carries a maximum jail term of 20 years and a fine of no less than five times the amount or value of the gratification, or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction. If they are found guilty, it is likely that they will not be able to run for the next General Elections.

And then, we have the delineation by the Election Commission where non Malay voters were moved around creating some of the biggest Parliamentary constituencies in areas that the opposition had won in the previous General Elections and smaller & Malay majority constituencies for Barisan Nasional. Court cases opposing these delineation exercises failed with the courts throwing the case out. In other cases, registration of new voters (mostly Chinese voters) was objected without strong reasons and registration was not done.

Then at the last minute, Pribumi party registration was deemed invalid and was suspended temporarily until they submitted the right documents to the Registrar of Society. The registration of Pakatan Harapan as one entity had no reply from ROS despite several reminders and follow ups. And DAP was forced to hold their party elections again to avoid a possible deregistration of the party.

And as usual, there were open threats especially to the civil servants from voting for the opposition and numerous lies that BN had hoped will cause the support to Pakatan to go down drastically – one of them was that Lim Kit Siang will become the PM if Pakatan wins.

The BN politicians were so sure of another win (after all they have been winning since 1957) that they continued with their arrogant talks and took the concerns of the people very lightly. They insisted that people were happy, rich and was so distrustful of the oppositions that they will vote for BN once again.

BN however miscalculated one key element that the opposition had – Tun Dr M as the Chairman of Pakatan Harapan. The Old Man despite of supporting BN in the GE13 was on the other side of the spectrum for the GE14. He reconciled with Anwar which was a big plus point for the opposition and managed to rally the others to apply the same strategy. Almost every night, we listen to Rafizi on his lori besar and Tun M speeches at the various place in the country.

We were dead tired – not surprisingly from all the standing for almost 2 hours and all that driving in the morning

So seeing that it would be too early for any “viable” results, we went to take a short nap first but then again, the anticipation was just killing me, so I could not sleep – I keep checking my phone for every 10 minutes for any news. At the end of the day, Facebook, special GE14 apps, websites, Whatsapp and even watching the TV – you name it and we were watching all. Although they were showing different results at the same time, it was a matter of whether you going to be optimistic then you check on the Malaysiakini website for unconfirmed results where Pakatan was leading BN comfortably or if pessimistic then you watch TV channels where BN was winning more seats than Pakatan – this is due to the slow announcement of the final results by the EC.

(Election offenses was already widely played out way before the actual polling date and yet there was little the EC did to bring them to books)

Overall the turnout by the voters as the time closed in for closure of voting was still “low” (EC claimed that most voters had voted in the morning) but it was not reaching the more than 80% that the opposition that was looking for. As at 3 pm (2 hours to close), the turnout was just 69% and it was a worrying trend if most of the voters had voted in the morning. And yet there were news that there were still alot of voters still queuing and had not cast their votes.

A 22-year old first-time voter named Bryan tells Malaysiakini that he had to wait more than six hours to cast his vote today.

“I arrived at my voting centre at 9am and only voted at 3.15pm. My voting stream was all young voters and first-time voters.

It was evident that alot of voters will not get to vote by 5 pm and despite the appeal by NGOs & politicians, EC confirmed by then that they are not allowing for any extension of time. This caused BERSIH to issue this urgent statement:-

BERSIH 2.0 has told voters who have been caught in long queues to stay put and insist on voting even after 5pm.

In a statement BERSIH 2.0 said: “Those that are already in queue before 5pm at the polling station, please ensure that you are allowed to vote after 5pm.

“Do not go away even if SPR says you are too late. If you are already there and in queue before 5pm, SPR must allow you to vote and cannot ask you to leave. Stay and insist on your right to vote. It is not your fault for them being too slow.”

BERSIH 2.0 added that if the queues are still very long at 5pm, voters should take photos of the queues and the time and write down the names of the Ketua Tempat Mengundi or any SPR officers who refuse voters that are already queuing before 5pm to vote.

And in Port Dickson, we even had this nonsense – which was caught by the public red-handed:-

Police have confirmed receiving a report about a small commotion at Sekolah Kebangsaan Port Dickson here this morning.

It was learnt that the commotion involved supporters from Barisan Nasional and PKR following to the discovery of fake ballot papers allegedly distributed by a 14-year-old OKU female teenager outside the polling centre.

When contacted, state police chief Datuk Noor Azam Jamaludin confirmed that the police had received the report lodged by a representative from PKR at about 10.30am this morning.

“We are still investigating the matter and it is still unknown whether the OKU girl, who allegedly distributed the fake ballot papers was hired by any individual or party.

Voters at Balai Mesyuarat Taman Bukit Serdang in Section 5 here have been placing their ballots in the wrong boxes since doors opened after 8am Wednesday. The ballot papers – orange for parliament and yellow for state seats – were placed in boxes with labels that did not match the ballot papers.

An agent went on to check all 10 streams (saluran) in the polling station and found two with stickers not matching ballots. Stickers are placed at the front of the box, away from the view of voters when they insert their ballots.

Results started to trickling down from 8 pm onward and just like the voting line in the morning, the results were announced at almost a snail place.

The time showed 12.00 am and no clear results was announced especially from Sabah and as the time continues to fly-by, we started to hear rumours of the PM meeting up with the National Security Council and they were planning to announce an emergency – a plan that was thwarted by the Sultans and the King. Such rumours did not help to lessen the tension of everyone at home watching the outcome at home. My brother in law even did not have his bath ended up drinking alcohol more due to the stress.

There were a number of upsets – no thanks to the PAS back-stabbers – they took away key opposition votes that would have made Pakatan easy winner of the seats. One of the obvious upset was Liew Chin Tong who lost to MCA’s Wee Ka Siong by merely 303 votes (PAS took away 4,975 votes from the opposition!). The good news was that Pakatan had won a lot of the key seats that were traditionally belonged to BN early into the voting count and moving forward, the remaining results would be on the traditionally strong Pakatan seats.

As expected MCA, MIC and Gerakan was wiped out (kept 1 seat each by sheer luck) and also surprisingly some UMNO key politicians – this was a clear indicators that race based political party is not going to an accepted trend.

Penang and Selangor would remain under Pakatan with a very good margin – thank God and now even other states started to fall to Pakatan – namely Johore, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Kedah and Sabah. Things was looking good and if all goes well and no hanky-panky, no phantom votes, no serious breach of the protocols (especially on signing off the Form 14), Pakatan may just able to pull off one of the greatest record in history of the country.

The final tally showed overwhelming support for Pakatan Harapan:-

Johor – PH (29 out of 56 seats)

Kedah – PH (18 out of 36 seats); PAS (15 seats); BN (3 seats)

Kelantan – PAS (28 out of 45 seats)

Melaka – PH (15 out of 28 seats)

Negeri Sembilan – PH (20 out of 36 seats)

Pahang – BN (22 out of 42 seats)

Perak – PH (29 out of 59 seats); BN (27 seats); PAS (3 seats)

Perlis – BN (10 out of 15 seats)

Penang – PH (25 out of 40 seats)

Sabah – BN (29 out of 60 seats); Warisan (29 seats)

Selangor – PH (29 seats out of 56 seats)

Terengganu – PAS (18 out of 32 seats)

(The all important press conference – it is clear that everyone is tired and frustrated on the slow count of the votes but the win was firmly in the hands of Pakatan Harapan)

Then at 5 am something, Tun Dr M held a press conference and informed that Pakatan had gained the simple majority required and will be forming the next Federal Government. That was great but there was no news of concede from the now ex-PM, DS Najib and that was getting scary. What was he up to? I know that the moment he lost control of the Federal Government, he is going to be hounded for the various corruption charges and mismanagement of funds, something he will not take that easily. I had a bad feeling that he is going to go down die fighting.

(Well said – despite the win, Pakatan still had to wait for Dr M to be sworn in as the next PM)

With still some uncertainties with no official announcements from the Palace or the BN conceding defect, I had expected that it will be some time before we get the confirmation that Pakatan will form the next Federal Government. I looked at the time and it was almost time to wake up for work. There was no point of going to back to sleep. My son who I thought was sleeping came down to the hall and asked if public holidays had been declared – apparently he had been awake all night catching up on the election. Just when I was considering to message my boss that I will be talking half day off (no point I come to work and end up sleeping on the work desk), public holidays were announced by the Chief Secretary (because Dr M was not the PM yet).

And finally almost the 11 am, Najib finally appeared and conceded defeat and the Federal power was confirmed to be firmly under the hands of Pakatan Harapan. The sworn in of the Prime Minister however took even more time to be confirmed.

Anyway it was a GE14 to remember – it is a history in the making. Considering that the opposition will be taking over for the first time since Merdeka, since 1957, I do expected mistakes, slippages, politicians jumping ships and amateur like decision at least for the first 100 days but that is expected. But the cleanup of the nation had started on a strong footing. And Dr M did start off on a very aggressive manner and it started with blacklisting some key players in the earlier corruption acts from leaving the country.

I went to sleep and when I woke up, the air somehow smelt fresher and the environment calmer. Welcome to Malaysia Baru – the New Malaysia.

(It may finally end but the question is why now and why not in 2009 or in 2010? Any law that allows the Government to hold anyone without any trials, no recourse to the courts and at the sole discretion of certain politicians in power is dangerous, unfair and allows for gross abuse. Poster source: Mob’s Crib)

Mention of the Internal Security Act (ISA) in the past, one would think of national security, proactive actions to curtail attempts to create chaos and violence – that is until this happened in 2008:-

Tan Hoon Cheng, a reporter of the Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew, was arrested Friday under the Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detention without trial. She was, however, freed Saturday. An opposition lawmaker and the editor of a pro-opposition news Web site were also detained under the ISA on Friday, but have not been released.

The action has drawn widespread criticism from opposition politicians, the Bar Council, human rights groups and now even by some in the government-controlled media.

Tan’s arrest “will go down in Malaysian history as the most controversial, if not most ridiculous,” Wong Chun Wai, the editor of the influential Sunday Star, wrote in a signed opinion piece.

On Saturday, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar defended the three detentions by saying they were necessary to prevent racial conflict. He said Tan, an ethnic Chinese, was arrested because police received information that her life had been threatened.

If that was the case, police should have given her protection instead of arresting her, said Malaysian Chinese Association youth wing chief Liow Tiong Lai. “It is not a clever excuse,” he said in a statement.

“To put it bluntly, the arrest was outrageous and went against the grain of natural justice,” Wong wrote. “In the eyes of the world, we are becoming more like a political basket case each day as old politicians attempt to bring back their outdated tricks,” he wrote.

When Najib took over the PM seat in April 2009, one of the first right thing he did was to release 13 people including the 2 key Hindraf activists from ISA detention. That act was laudable even though the arrests under ISA should not have happened in the first place. But back then there were no immediate plans to abolish ISA. Not in 2009 or in 2010.

So it was a big surprise to hear Najib in late 2011 announcing that the ISA will be abolished. It is a big surprise because only recently we saw the manner of his administration reacting on the Bersih 2.0’s electoral reforms rallies.

At this point, it is not clear if the announcement was made in good faith or to deny the Oppositions an important issue for up-coming general elections or simply a delaying tactic whilst a more terrible, severe laws are put in place (perhaps to ensure those in power remains in power?). We will only know what was the real intention once ISA has been actually repealed and the details of the new laws (which Najib says will be enacted to maintain peace, harmony and prosperity) comes under greater scrutiny.

But first, let’s look at the quotable quotes namely the “180 degree turn statements” from the politicians from ruling party who earlier did not actively pushed for abolishment of such draconian laws:-

MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek – the announcement made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on the Internal Security Act (ISA) repeal was not a mere “proposal”. “It is something which will be implemented,”

After hearing words like “basic human rights”, “moral high grounds”, “heeded the voice of the people” from the very people who failed to uphold it when it was badly needed – don’t you feel you want to puke?

I say this because these are very people (namely Mahathir and Badawi) who were in a position to do something on ISA in the past and yet did nothing but when Najib announced it, they jump into wagon band applauding it. And despite that, it is apparent that on the other end – assuming the PM is serious with his plans for ISA, it is not going to be smooth road ahead:-

A reader at The People’s Parliament – It’s a gimmick. Just like when the Anti-corruption Agency was replaced by the MACC, it was promised that the MACC would be like the Hong Kong Anti-corruption Agency where corruption would have zero-tolerance

Former PM, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi – Datuk Seri Najib Razak should expect hardliners in Barisan Nasional (BN) to resist his plans to repeal the Internal Security Act (ISA) and other security laws because they want to maintain the old ways to silence critics.

There is no doubt that many especially the Oppositions are taking the stand of waiting and see whether the abolishment of ISA will actually take. At this point, there are many uncertainties.

What is the form of the new laws that is going to replace ISA? Will it end up as another “new wine in old bottle”? And the Home Minister have ruled out the immediate release of ISA detainees until the new law comes in force. That means these detainees will remained locked up in Kamunting with an uncertain future. And why the PM did not call for emergency sitting of the Parliament for the abolishment of ISA and amendments of other restrictive laws to be tabled and approved?

Najib have been talking about transformation, high-income nation and of course, the role of 1Malaysia in his administration. No doubt there have some success in this but implementation of it have somehow tainted by inter-party politics and anti-Opposition political driven motives, driven by people who put the politics ahead of the country.

The promise to abolish draconian laws like ISA is always welcomed. No doubt, the Government of the day has the right to take drastic actions to ensure peace and security for its citizens and in doing so, may do so in denial of individual basic rights. But it has to be done without any double standards. Reasons used by the Government in the past to arrests citizens under ISA unfortunately have not been applied in the same manner & force on those closely linked to the Government and ruling political party. This is why there have been a greater call for the repeal of such laws. Laws that lately seemed to be frequently used to enforce the power position of the Government and silencing of those who are against the Government.

We are not sure sure the nature and the scope of the new laws that will replace ISA. We just hope it does not turn to be another case of ACA turned MACC gone bad (after Teong Beng Hock, it seems they still have problems at its end). And if Najib is indeed serious in making positive changes to promote the uphold of human rights and dispel the doubts that Government is indeed serious to do away with laws like ISA, he should not waste time getting repeal process in motion. And it should be done before the next general elections (the same goes for his promise on electoral reforms).

Najib have spoken but whether things spoken will translate to actual action, we need to wait and see. Najib is moving in the right direction and he need to keep up the momentum to ensure his promise cascades down his administration and political circle, otherwise it will end up as another election gimmick.

UPDATE 1: Some of the questions raised has been answered in this FAQ by Tricubes Bhd but still, it is a real wonder why spend so much on something is available for free even it involves sensitive information

UPDATE 2: 05.10.2011 – Loss-making Tricubes Bhd has managed to sign up only 3,000 users for the free web-based myemail.my service — some six months after the company was picked to launch the service. CEO Khairun conceded that the target now looked “very, very stretched,” although he remained confident that the service will get “a couple of million” subscribers by the end of next year (Source)

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(Is there a real and valid reasons to have email address? How about when the Government have decided to create one email for all Malaysians? Image source: http://www.itsngenius.com)

You have read about it in the papers by now and you may be in a state of disbelief.

Local IT player Tricubes Bhd will invest RM50 million in the 1Malaysia Email Project to provide an account each for official purposes, to all Malaysians aged 18 and above.

“We will focus on delivery of notices and bills, MYEG is about online payment,” CEO Khairun Zainal Mokhtar told a press conference after the announcement. However the description of the project in handouts distributed during the event, said the 1Malaysia email and portal will be a ‘one-stop centre for government services, providing value-added services such as social networking, checking bills online and payment’.

Khairun also said that his company will own the portal and email infrastructure once it is completed sometime in July. However, he failed to address a question as to how the company will recoup the millions of ringgit in investment. It was also not apparent how having an email system as an Entry Point Project (EPP) will help to drive Malaysia’s transformation to a high-income nation.

I still recall when I got my very first email address 10 years ago. It was a hotmail email, first opened to the public in 1997 and with an email address in my pocket, my steps into the online world looked complete (it was not but back then, I was ignorant on what the internet has to offer as well). The hotmail email was my personal email which I used to communicate with my friends. I also had a company email for formal communications. Fast forward to the present day, it will be almost impossible to get on with working life without an email address (I have 3 email addresses now – 2 personal and 1 company emails).

Yes, it will be difficult to get on with our daily routine and communications without a proper email address. And yet, there are some of us without any email address (one good example, my parents). They don’t see the point of having one – they are not applying for any job online and for communications, they just rely on a good phone call and for official businesses, they rather go to the government office and get things done.

So, it may sound good if the Government is taking the initiatives to get an email address for all Malaysians above 18 years old but there are some questions that need to be answered before we, as the tax-payers and probably the end-user of this 1Malaysia email, can roll out the red-carpet.

1. Before we can even talk about emails, first ask – is high speed internet available for all and at the right rate – enough for lower income Malaysians to use on a regular basis? No point having an email address if you cannot retrieve your emails. No doubt the Government has been working hard to roll-out high speed and cost effective broadband services for all but have all areas have high speed, cheap internet in place?

2. Ok fine, let’s assume we have cheap and fast internet available, what is the percentage of Malaysians without any email address? Is it that bad that the Government had to take the steps to provide Malaysians with one? When most of us have a Facebook account these days, what more of a more basic thing called email? If I already have a valid & working email address, can I decline having this dubious 1Malaysia email?

3. RM50 million may be invested by Tricubes Bhd but how they going to recover this huge investment and cost of maintenance? Some form of reimbursement from the Government? Some form of yearly fees charged to the end-users? Intrusive advertisements in emails? Or tax-payers’ money? These days you register for email from Microsoft, Yahoo or Google for free. Why need to spend RM50 million to create emails for Malaysians then?

4. Just how secure is this 1Malaysia email? I am not talking about secure from hackers and spasm – I am sure that all this would be in place before it is rolled out to the public. I am talking about secure to the end-users. Imagine emails of all Malaysians which contain sensitive information & communications with Government all in one place, controlled by one private company. What is the guarantee that the contents of the email will remain private and not opened for scrutiny by certain Government agencies?

And here’s more trouble news with the whole affair:-

Tricubes Bhd’s RM50 million contract to develop the 1 Malaysia email service could be the financial lifeline of the information technology firm which is at risk of being delisted from Bursa Malaysia as early as October 29 unless it gets its finances in order.

Does it sounds like a bail-out? How a company who cannot manage its own finances is entrusted to manage millions of sensitive emails belonging to all Malaysians? Having email address no doubt is necessary and also essential but there are far more important things.

A friend IM-ed me with this interesting but valid point this morning “Sarawakians in the interior with no electricity, education, water, health support and welfare but they have government-granted email accounts that they can’t access. Bull”. A point well made!

UPDATE: Read Art Harun’s The RPK Factor as why we should not blame RPK for the revelations on Anwar

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Talk about bad timing for Anwar…

(Once a thorn for the ruling party, RPK’s latest admission has played in favor of the ruling party and at the right time too – when Sarawak State Elections is just around the corner. Najib can breathe a bit better now, we are pretty sure. Image source: http://www.selangortoday.wordpress.com)

Always been the man with controversy, RPK’s latest admission will not only put a dent on Anwar Ibrahim who not only facing sodomy charges but also entangled with sex video, it also puts a severe creditability poser on RPK himself and Malaysia Today.

In a sensational interview over TV3 last night, Raja Petra said he had made the allegations on the belief that the order came from PKR adviser and Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The Malaysia Today founder and editor said his SD in 2008 which stated he was reliably informed that Rosmah was among those present at the crime scene on Oct 19, 2006 when Altantuya was killed was based on information and demand by several individuals aimed at preventing Najib from becoming prime minister.

Ok, it somehow clears Najib and his wife from the murder allegations but it does not clear the air as why Altantuya was killed and whether there was huge commission paid unnecessarily. Perhaps we have to wait for another revelation in the future.

But for now, RPK’s latest admission is a serious blow to Anwar Ibrahim